In electrical connector applications, metal terminals with male and female configurations are utilized to make an interconnection. The terminals are crimped to the core of an electrical cable and stabilized with less critical insulation crimp wings. The terminals usually have complicated blanking and forming operations and at least one of the two terminals has a spring member designed to provide a constant electrical contact. Both terminals have metal lock tangs (protrusions) to hold them in plastic housings of male and female connector halves. A similar protrusion is provided as a shoulder for a terminal position assurance that retains the terminals in the plastic housing. As such, the terminals usually have complicated configurations.
There are other numerous shortcomings of the above systems. The terminals are manufactured using numerous blanking and forming operations and have relatively large dies. The larger the die the more expensive the connectors are to a manufacturer. Different crimp wings for various gauge sizes requires additional assembly dies adding to the assembly costs. The transitional zone between the spring contact and the crimp wing of the terminal limits the amount of current that can flow through the connector interface. Further, standard crimps are subject to environmental degradation and stress relaxation. Crimps add resistance to current flow and can degrade over time. And as indicated above, due to their complicated design, many terminals utilize a substantial amount of blanking stock.
Increasing the blanking stock thickness to make a tuning fork for a high current applications is undesirable because the tuning fork will have crimp wings that are substantially thick and extremely difficult to crimp over the wire core and insulative sheath.
The present invention provides advantages over and alternatives to the prior art.